Topic Sentences and Body Paragraphs

Topic Sentences

•Checklist•Topic sentence…•Has key words that connect to the thesis.•Makes a specific point (so what?).•Can be divided into sub-points.

Examples

• Thesis - Wiesel demonstrates how faith shatters under the pressure of dehumanization.• Topic Sentence #1 – When Moishe the Beadle sees

how the SS treat the Jews like animals, he loses faith in God entirely. • Topic Sentence #2 – Elie witnesses the inhumanity of

the SS in Auschwitz, and his faith dies on the spot and is gone forever. • Topic Sentence #3 – Throughout the book, we see

several characters who try to hold onto their faith, but after all the inhumanity, lose it.

Paragraph Structure

• Quote Sandwich #2• Intro to quote, quote, analysis (connect to topic sentence)

• Conclusion

• Topic Sentence

• Quote Sandwich #1• Intro to quote, quote, analysis (connect to topic sentence)

• Transition

Introducing Quotations• NEVER start a sentence with a quotation.• You MUST introduce the quote.

• Provide Context (scene, speaker, etc.)

• Examples• If the quote has an “I,” “Me,” or “My” in it, you must tell the

reader who is speaking.• Towards the end of the memoir, Elie states, “I was

nothing but a body” (87). • The night of his arrival, after seeing babies unloaded into the

crematorium, Wiesel recounts, “Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke…Never shall I forget the flames that consumed my faith forever” (34).